Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

Watching David Wampach and Tamar Shelef exerting themselves to the limits of exhaustion while simultaneously hyperventilating until their lungs explode belongs to one of the more extreme challenges in theater. In SACRE, the French choreographer David Wampach opens up an additional, strictly subjective view onto the 100-year history of Igor Stravinsky’s composition and Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography. Only traces remain from the original: individual patterns of Nijinsky’s movement as well as sound fragments from Stravinsky’s music. In a minimalistic stage set and with a dose of grotesque irony, the duet ignites a multi-faceted discourse on the power of the original and western culture’s fascination for exotic rites – even beyond pagan Russia – that is immanent in the piece. The excessive use of hyperventilation soon unfolds its intoxicating effects and makes the audience lose its breath by simply watching.
After his education at the Centre Chorégraphique National Montpellier with Mathilde Monnier and at P.A.R.T.S with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Brussels, David Wampach has been working for over ten years as an internationally successful choreographer. The fact that he studied medicine before turning to dance seems to be no insignificant piece of information in the face of this SACRE.

Choreography: David Wampach * With Tamar Shelef and David Wampach * Production: Association Achles * Co-production: Festival Montpellier Danse, Centre national de la danse – Pantin, Centre chorégraphique national de Franche-Comté à Belfort, Le Cratère, scène nationale d’Alès * Supported by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Tanzquartier Wien and adc Genf in the context of Modul-dance and Ménagerie de Verre in the context of Studiolabs, Centre chorégraphique national Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon studio, CNDC – Centre national de danse contemporaine d’Angers * A performance of the Künstlerhauses Mousonturm in cooperation with the Alte Oper Frankfurt * The guest performance is supported by the Institut français and DGCA.